The 100 Happiest Cities in America

The 100 Happiest Cities in America

Where high income, high life satisfaction, and low inequality reign.

By
Alex Daniel

In his groundbreaking work Happiness by Design, the British economist Paul Dolan defines happiness as the right blend of experiencing pleasure and experiencing purpose. At various points in your life, the pendulum may swing to either side, but his research found that you need feel both to be truly happy. Now, by that measure, the citizens of these 100 cities are indeed having more fun—and enjoying more life satisfaction—than your average American.

We know this because we’ve crunched the numbers and ranked the happiest locales from coast to coast, drawing on data including household income (according toPrinceton researchers, happiness levels increase with rising income up to $75,000 per year), WalletHub’s recent Happiest City survey scores, and various “unhappy” statistics, including unemployment data, income inequality, and divorce rates (all of which have been found to contribute to lower levels of life satisfaction.) The cities with a combination of high happiness stats and low unhappiness stats rose quickly on our list—while those with a combination of the reverse plummeted. So read on and learn which cities topped our list. And if you’re considering moving, don’t just take into account happiness score; be sure to check outThe 50 Fittest Cities in America, too.